Speakers:
Peter Harries, chair of Sigma Xi's Grants in Aid of Research Committee;
Emma Perry, member and former chair of Sigma Xi's Grants in Aid of Research Committee;
Kevin Bowen, former program manager of Sigma Xi's Grants in Aid of Research Committee

More About Our Speakers

Dr. Peter Harries

Peter is a long-time member of the GIAR committee, and is its current chair. He started as an alternate committee member back in 1993, filling in for a colleague, and once he left the committee Peter became a full-time member. Since that time, he has read hundreds of proposals and, due that experience, he has been actively engaged in collaboration with the staff at Sigma Xi and other committee members in further developing the application as well as the submission processes and providing increased feedback to the applicants. This experience has been invaluable to Peter, not only in assisting his own graduate students in writing compelling proposals, but also in his own grant writing.

In terms of his professional pathway, during his final year as a PhD student, he started as a visiting assistant professor at the University of South Florida in 1992 and he is currently a full professor at the same institution. His research has been primarily focused on invertebrate paleontology, specifically studies devoted to reconstructing the nature of biotic recovery from mass extinction events and comparing and contrasting the paleobiology of green- vs. icehouse conditions. However, his research interests are far ranging and the topics investigated by his students cover a vastly broader swath. In addition to his professor duties, he is also currently the assistant dean of the Office of Graduate Studies, where he oversees the academic and professional development of approximately 10,000 graduate students.

Dr. Emma Perry

Emma is an associate professor of marine physiology and coordinator of the Marine Biology Program at Unity College in Maine. Emma moved to Bangor in 1997 to work at Unity College. Born in England, Emma earned a degree in zoology from Exeter University, Devon. She then emigrated to Tampa, Florida, to study sand dollars for her doctorate.

Emma has studied how sand dollars mix proteins with mineral to make their skeletons, and now wades through tide pools and forests to collect and study tardigrades, their ecology, and taxonomy.

Emma has been a member of Sigma Xi and the Grants in Aid of Research Committee for fifteen years. She is a member of the Committee on Qualifications and Membership for Sigma Xi. She is also past chair of the Grants in Aid of Research Committee which is committed to providing some of the first critical funding of a student’s career in research.

Kevin Bowen

Kevin served as the manager of Society programs for Sigma Xi until his departure in May of 2015. Kevin's program management included the Grants in Aid of Research, Distinguished Lectureships, and Society Awards Programs as well as the Student Research Conference. His responsibility in these program areas included ongoing maintenance, development, and coordination with various Sigma Xi committees that oversaw the programs.

In addition, he was responsible for maintaining partnerships with several science and education organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, Intel ISEF, and Pete Conrad Foundation. Kevin had served as chair for a number of staff committees including the Brand and Organization Assessment Team (2004-2005) and Annual Meeting-Student Research Conference Planning Team (2003-2015).

Prior to joining Sigma Xi, Kevin worked in the Fiscal Research Division of the North Carolina General Assembly, as a research assistant for the N.C. Court of Appeals, an interviewer for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation and as a high school educator in the North Carolina public school system. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Alpha Delta, and Phi Alpha Theta honor societies.